Sabean and Bochy get extended, Sandoval talks about weight loss, the Giants are back

Calvalcades of notes and anecdotes from the Giants’ media availibility today, as they get set for what surely will be a raucous FanFest tomorrow at AT&T Park.

I’ve included little tastes of gaggle-interviews with Tim Lincecum, Cody Ross & Bruce Bochy, then parts of the transcript from Bill Neukom announcing that the Giants have picked up the 2012 options on Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean.

Some quick thoughts, before the transcripts (and before I write my column)…

“A tour de force,” Neukom called the work by Sabean’s front office last season. “Relentlessly smart work.”

Typical of Sabean, he looked slightly pained to hear the praise, credited his players and management team–and Bochy–and pointedly refused to say that the 2010 World Series title made him any more relaxed about the team’s 2011 roster.

* Generally, the mood of the players was just about what it was at the end of last season: Happy to be together, aiming for more, looking for mental edges.

The most startling thing: Tim Lincecum’s (rather sparse) new moustache. “It’s my first one ever,” he said. “I started growing it a month ago and this is about all I’ve got. It’s kind of sad, but true.”

Reaction from his teammates?

“Mixed,” Lincecum said.

* The most anticipated appearance was by Pablo Sandoval, who looked pretty good and revealed he’s been getting hitting advice from Barry Bonds (to be more patient and relaxed at the plate) and training with former Olympic decathlete Dan O’Brien.

Sandoval also said he didn’t pick up a bat for two months, before participating in a home run derby in Venezuela recently. “Third place,” Sandoval said. “Not too bad.”

This off-season was a moment of truth for his major league career, Sandoval admitted.

“I knew I had to change my body and I had to chang emy mind,” Sandoval said. “I had to grow up.”

I wouldn’t say Sandoval was svelte (or ever could get there), but he looked OK, if he maintains this weight. Probably lost about 30 pounds from the end of last season.

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* Bochy emphasized the team will have some control over the Showtime reality series, which will have cameras around the Giants all season.

“We’ve discussed it quite a bit, and with the players,” Bochy said. “It’s not going to be any different than what we just went through in the playoffs.

” These guys did an unbelievable job of keeping their focus out on the field. It’s not going to be a case where they’re going to be out there 24/7 and we’re looking over our shoulder at the camera all the time. It’s not going to be like that.

“It will be up to me and the players to make sure this is not a distraction or any kind of disruption of what we need to do.”

And Bochy says he will have some personal say-so on the access given to the cameras.

“Oh yeah, as far as when they can come in and when’s our time,” Bochy said. “This is going to be I think good for the Giants, good for baseball and also done very well.

“I think most of you know me, I’m not a guy who’s going to want to be in the limelight.”
To the transcripts/

**** BILL NEUKOM/ BRIAN SABEAN/ BRUCE BOCHY/
–SABEAN (on getting his contract picked up through 2012): It’s humbling, it’s a real honor, obviously… I really appreciate the vote of confidence. Really gives us a chance for Boch and I, with the bar raised, to see what’s next.

–BOCHY (on the same): Greatful, honored, humble… Not just this year, coming up to San Francisco, just to fall in love with the city…

-Q: Through the lean years, you got a lot of criticism. Do you think about that as you sit up here having won the World Series and now extended into 2012?

-SABEAN: What’s been the common theme that I think that’s impressed ownership is that we’re very open. Nobody can criticize us any more than the group itself. Incredibly hard on ourselves, personally, collectively.

And quite frankly, and this goes back to when Bill was on the executive committee with the partnership, our meetings with ownership are very pointed and brutally honest. If we’ve screwed up, we tell them how and why…

Having said that, the more you do this job, the more you understand that there’s a lot more invested… with winning a World Series… it shows that people care and that fuels our fire, too.

-BOCHY: Some things have to be earned. And I knew that coming up here. The fans didn’t know me and I was competing in the same division and that goes with the territory when you make a change. I understood that.

There were a couple tough lean years. I’m appreciative of a couple things—one, Brian having the confidence to bring me up here. But also staying with me, to have that kind of support means a lot to me…

-Q: Brian, is there personal vindication for you?

-SABEAN: I never look at it that way. You’re open game. You’re a public figure. And again I go to people finding it important to follow the buck. I don’t think it’s done in a malicious way, certainly in most cases it’s not.

I don’t think there’s an agenda. Folks have a job that. I understand that. Having said that, you know I don’t seek the limelight. I don’t need to be in the limelight… But we’re all under the gun. I never think of personal vindication, because you’re accountable for too many people, starting with your own family….

-Q: Brian, you made so many moves late in the season last year. Having won it now, are you less likely to be so active with this year’s team or do you still have to approach it that you have to be aggressive when necessary?

-SABEAN: What’s unique about the question is that personally I feel a lot more anxiety—you know, what’s next? Have we kept enough of the group together? Have we had enough change?

It’ll be interesting to see how (Miguel) Tejada blends in and steps up. Do we get the old Pablo back? It’d be like making a trade within the organization. We’ll have Ross from opening day… We’ll have Buster at the beginning of the year. We’ve got to get Freddy ready for opening day.

(Brandon) Belt’s in the wings. There’s enough to be excited about, but we also know that we had to go like hell to win this game on the last game of the season.

From a practical standpoint, if we gave an “A” effort last year when it counted the most, we might have to give an “A+” effort in general just to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s what keeps you going.

-Q: What’s the thought-process of the Showtime docu-drama?

-NEUKOM: It is a documentary. We think it will be very high-quality, MLB Productions. We know them quite well from a number of years. They were very much embedded during the postseason.

This was brought to us by major league baseball. We were told there were a number of larger-market teams that were eager to do this, they felt the Giants because of winning and the personalities on this team would be the best team to start with…

There is no financial reward for the players or for the team. The reward overall is going to be that the San Francisco can be part of an effort to educate more fans and even the casual fan about what’s so fascinating and compelling about baseball.

And there’s a West Coast-East Coast aspect to this. We don’t get the coverage that we’d like to have. MLB understands that…

-Q: Bill, is this the last team option you have on Sabean and Bochy?

-NEUKOM: Yes.

-Q: Was there any thought or discussion about extending them beyond 2012?

-NEUKOM: Not at this point.

-Q: Why not?

-NEUKOM: They have… look at the history. When I came on the job, I went to each of them and said, you have one more year left, for the 2009 season. We need to get back to winning baseball and will you trust me and will you focus entirely on getting back to winning baseball? After four losing seasons, including winning 72 games in 2008…

And to their credit, they said yes, we will have at it. Then we had discussions about a year ago and agreed on a two-year deal with a one-year option, which is very much within baseball’s contemplations. And this is the exercise of that third year.
***** TIM LINCECUM, partial transcript/

-Q: You were out there waving that 12th man flag in Seattle.

-LINCECUM: Yeah.

-Q: Was that one of the highlights of the off-season?

-LINCECUM: Yeah, I’d say getting my place in Seattle, getting some roots for myself, was probably the biggest. And then being a part of something like that—I haven’t been to a Seahawks game in so long. I think that was my first at that stadium…

Just waving around a car flag was kind of weird, but it was fun.

-Q: What are your thoughts on the Showtime show?

-LINCECUM: I think it’ll be good. I think we have a lot more control over it than what some people may think. Going forward with it, it may give us a little more publicity, which is good.

-Q: You got the moustache going?

-LINCECUM: I’m trying to let it go. It’s my first one ever. I got it for Christmas.

No, actually, I started growing it about a month ago and this is about all I’ve got. It’s kind of sad, but true.

-Q: What’s your teammates’ reaction been to your moustache?

-LINCECUM: Uh, mixed.

-Q: Do you think this team can have the same mental edge it had last year?

-LINCECUM: I think it’s just kind of the way we are. Everybody got to see who we were. Doing different things: the rally thong, the beard, the hair, what have you.

And I think that’s going to be something we stick with. Just because that’s who we are. We’re not going to change anything. We’re going to stay true to ourselves.

-Q: Interesting to see the Phillies load up with pitching, adding Cliff Lee?

-LINCECUM: You worry about them when you play them, and that’s the only time. You know obviously it’s kind of nice to see guys kind of following our path, I guess, of just sticking with pitching and worrying about the rest later.

-LINCECUM: I don’t think quite yet. I think it’ll be one thing… it would’ve been awesome to share the moment with the fans just to be here and win it in front of them. But I think that’s what tomorrow, the FanFest is going take off. We’re going to be able to share it with a fan base of like 40,000 will show up tomorrow.

**** CODY ROSS, partial transcript/

-Q: How much has your life changed?

-ROSS: I’d say a complete 180. Is that right? A complete 180. I mean, people come up to me still, to this day, obviously here especially in San Fran, but not only here and Phoenix and other places that I go. Telling me thank you, longtime Giants fan… just to hear people say that, it’s awesome.

That’s what you play for. You want people to recognize you and tell you thank you. I tell them thank you back.

It’s part of it. When you grow up wanting to be in the major leagues, you’ve got to understand that signing autographs and people wanting to talk to you, that’s part of it. And you have to accept it and embrace it.

-Q: Is this team set up to do it two, three, four times?

-ROSS: I think so, our pitching, for me, is the best in the league and all around the league. I can say that because I’ve had to face these guys a lot. And it’s not fun coming into San Francisco, and it’s cold, knowing you’ve got to face Lincecum and Cain, now Bumgarner, Sanchez… it’s not an easy task.

But the bullpen doesn’t get enough credit. I think they’re starting to. They’re lights out, too. It’s set up to do some damage.

-Q: There was so much mental edge to this team last year. Can you have that kind of edge after getting a championship?

-ROSS: I think we can keep that same sort of edge, that chip on our shoulder. I mean, obviously we’re not going to be as much underdogs as we were last year.

Even going into the last series I think people thought San Diego still might be able to pull it out. And then obviously in the division series, the Braves were favored, and then the Phillies, and the Rangers.

We were the underdog pretty much the whole time. I doubt if that’s going to the case this year. But I still think we can have the chip on our shoulder that people are trying to take a run at us, and we have to defend. We’re all aboard with that.

well TK i thought you’d be spending your time dumping on monta and all your “haters, shills and homers” about his all star snub than writing something fairly neutral and balanced about The Champs. thanks for proving me wrong.